Which to use
“affaibli” is an adjective and “affaiblir” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,556
- “affaibli” frequency rank
- #14,593
- “affaiblir” frequency rank
- 30149
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | affaibli | affaiblir |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | En parlant d’une personne, physique ou morale : rendu faible, diminué physiquement, moralement ou intellectuellement. | Rendre faible. |
Where the eye mixes affaibli and affaiblir
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. affaibli runs 8 letters (VCCVVCCV) against affaiblir's 9 (VCCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses affaibli with affaiblir
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: affaibli is \a.fɛ.bli\ while affaiblir is \a.fe.bliʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “affaibli” sits inside “affaiblir”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30149, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
affaibli is recorded at frequency rank #15,556, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.fɛ.bli\. affaiblir is at rank #14,593, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.fe.bliʁ\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 30149, this pair ranks #312,185 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of affaibli vs affaiblir
Shared letters: abfil. Private to "affaibli": -. Private to "affaiblir": r.
"affaibli" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCCV · "affaiblir" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "affaibli" and "affaiblir" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "affaibli" or "affaiblir"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "affaibli" and "affaiblir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "affaibli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "affaiblir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #312,185 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "affaibli" and "affaiblir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "affable vs affaibli". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #312,185 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.